Thirty-two points hold the horizon
Each rising and setting star fixes one bearing — together they ring the whole sea without a single written degree.
32 points
The canoe is always the centre
Position is never plotted on a chart — it is felt as the moving reference point beneath a fixed field of stars.
moving reference
Waves are read as ribs, not water
A stick chart of bent coconut fronds records swell patterns by feel, so the body remembers what the eye cannot see at night.
stick chart
East is held at the top of the sky
Where charts turn north upward, the paafu turns east — because the night begins where the first guiding star rises.
east = up